Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency says any potential deal with the U.S. is still in “final stages of ratification” in Iran and has not yet been decided, even as President Trump says he is preparing a “final determination” on the Iran deal imminently. Fars
Friday night, the Iran deal sat in limbo while President Trump signaled a verdict was close.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that the potential deal on the table with the U.S.—a deal Trump said he was preparing to make a “final determination” on “imminently”—was still “in the final stages of ratification in Iran” and “has not yet been decided.”
Fars focused its dispute on how Trump has been presenting the terms. In a Friday Truth Social post, Trump portrayed the demands in the emerging agreement. Fars said those claims about the Iran deal were questionable, describing them as “a mixture of truth and lies.”
The agency singled out specific points. One claim, Fars said, is that Tehran would be required to “reopen and help to de-mine the Strait of Hormuz,” an obligation Fars argued would be imposed “without receiving tolls,” even though it said there is “no such clause in the text of the agreement.”
Iran, the report continued, has insisted that after the lifting of the [U.S.] blockade it will open the strait according to “its predetermined arrangements.” Fars described those arrangements as flexible—ranging from “monitoring and inspecting ships” to “providing services and providing security.”
Fars also took aim at Trump’s claims about Tehran’s nuclear material. Trump has said Iran is removing or destroying its nuclear material. Fars pushed back, saying there is “not only” no such provision in the Memorandum of Understanding, but that the claim is “fundamentally unfounded.”
Even as Trump’s post suggested money would not change hands, Fars pointed to a different version of the draft. It said the current draft agreement includes the U.S. accepting the immediate release of “$12 billion in frozen assets of Iran. ” while Trump said on social media that “no money will be exchanged. until further notice.”.
One additional friction point also surfaced in Fars’s account: the report said another issue in the draft is the establishment of a “complete ceasefire in Lebanon in accordance with Hezbollah,” and it said Trump did not mention it.
The back-and-forth leaves a clear tension in the open: Trump frames his imminent decision as reflecting the deal’s demands. while Fars says the picture being sold is mischaracterized and not yet finalized on Iran’s side. If ratification is still underway in Iran. then the gap between what Trump is signaling and what the draft actually contains remains part of the story—right up to the moment of decision.
Iran deal Trump Truth Social Fars ratification Strait of Hormuz frozen assets $12 billion nuclear material Hezbollah ceasefire Memorandum of Understanding